Name:
Cape Lion; also known as Panthera leo melanochaitus
Habitat:
Plains of South Africa
Historical Epoch:
Late Pleistocene-Modern (500,000-100 years ago)
Size and Weight:
Up to 7 feet long and 500 pounds
Diet:
Meat
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Extensive mane; black-tipped ears
About the Cape Lion:
Of all the recently extinct offshoots of the modern lion--the European Lion (Panthera leo europaea), the Barbary Lion (Panthera leo leo) and the American Lion (Panthera leo atrox)--the Cape Lion (Panthera leo melanochaitus) may have the least claim to subspecies status. The last known adult specimen of this big-maned lion was shot in South Africa in 1858, and a juvenile was captured by an explorer a couple of decades later (it didn't survive long out of the wild). The trouble is, the various extant subspecies of lions have a tendency to interbreed and mix up their genes, so it may yet turn out that Cape Lions were an isolated tribe of Transvaal Lions, the remnants of which can still be found in South Africa.
